Our need for whole-ness, for holiness, seems as much a part of our heritage as is our need for protein. If we look at the vocabulary of the Indo-Europeans, hoping to get a sense of the texture of their lives, we discover that they invented a word for "holy." It meant the healthy inter-connectedness of all living things, a sense of connection to the whole, a state in which one sees and appreciates even what is hidden.

Diane Ackerman, A Natural History of Love